“They wanted way too much money,” Quinn said, so the governor began talking to UP, which was more favorable to the idea of running passenger trains on its route into Rockford.

State infrastructure money will pay for the $233 million project, Quinn said. The route is the one Rockford and Belvidere leaders originally wanted, before the state chose the southern CN route through Genoa.

The UP route will connect to Metra tracks at Big Timber, just west of Elgin, and the train will end at Union Station in Chicago. A schedule was not announced.

Providing service west of Rockford isn’t possible on the UP because its tracks west of Rockford were torn up in the 1970s and early 1980s. The right of way became a hiking/biking trail. Quinn said he’ll continue talks with CN to continue the train on to Freeport, Galena and Dubuque.

Lance Fritz, UP’s president and chief operating officer, said the railroad “is very happy to be able to take an underutilized line and refurbish it so, if at some point we would have an opportunity to see increased freight traffic, we would be able to do that.”

UP, one of six major railroads that operate in the U.S., has 4,000 employees in Illinois and recently hired 200, he said.

The UP serves the Fiat-Chrysler plant in Belvidere on the line but has few customers west of there.

Amtrak, which will own the rolling stock and engines, “wants to run at 79 mph,” Fritz said, which will require signalization on the “dark,” or unsignaled, line as it reaches Rockford. Schneider the train initially will be restricted to 59 mph, with the speed increasing to 79 mph in 2016.

Mayor Larry Morrissey said the week has been an exceptional one for Rockford, with aldermen giving the go-ahead Monday for the Amerock/Ziock hotel project.

Page 2 of 2 - “We’re here to celebrate because of the state of Illinois partnering with us in so many areas,” said Morrissey, who talked about all the downtown projects taking place with state support, including rebuilds of the Morgan Street bridge and South Main and West State streets, and the redevelopment of the old Ingersoll building into an indoor sports facility.

“The governor has been a huge supporter for us,” the mayor concluded.

“Rockford’s on the verge of accomplishing great things,” Stadelman, D-Rockford, said. “We need to change the dialogue from what we can’t do to what we can do.”

The city originally intended to build a passenger station on the CN line at South Main Street and Kent Creek. Morrissey said a new downtown site will have to be found on the UP line.

In the meantime, the train will stop at the old Chicago Northwestern Depot, 703 Seventh St., where thousands of immigrants from Europe, especially Sweden, first set foot in Rockford.

Rockford last saw Amtrak service in 1981. Passenger service on the UP line was discontinued in the late 1940s.

Illinois’ state-supported Amtrak lines saw record ridership of 2.2 million in 2013.